While not all accidents are deliberate, it is always easier to just point our fingers at drivers as the cause of accidents.
After all, the law penalizes all drivers who are involved in accidents, regardless of the cause of the accident.

Cyclists riding everywhere else except the extreme left lane.
Jaywalkers dashing across the road.
Motorcyclists swerving in and out of lanes.

I once encountered this situation when I was less than 10 metres away from this jaywalker, but he still decided to dash across the road anyway. I jammed my brakes and blasted my horn at him. He managed to get to the other side of the road safely (thanks to my quick reflexes and good brakes) and raised his hand to apologize, but I winded down my window to give him a peace of my mind anyway.

He saw me approaching, but why on earth would he still dash out across the road? Common sense would have told anybody not to, and to wait until the traffic is clear before crossing the road. That’s what we were all taught since young, right?
Perhaps he was in a rush, or maybe he thought he would be fast enough to cross the road (even when I was already seconds away from where he stood), or maybe he blatantly thought everyone should just give way to him (which seems to be the egotistical mentality of a lot of drivers and pedestrians alike).

My point is, accidents happen everyday and the driver isn’t always the one at fault.
In my case, I was travelling within the speed limit and I didn’t slow down even though I saw him standing at the side of the road. I would assume he was probably waiting for a cab, or at least wait for me to pass so he could cross. Nobody would have expected him to dash out. If that had been an accident, my only mistake was not being able to brake in time.

It will be my fault for not being able to brake in time, but the cause of the accident was a reckless jaywalker. Not a reckless driver.

Similarly, if I was driving a cement truck, and a young cyclist misjudged the speed of my vehicle and dashes across the road, we have another tragic case where the cause of the accident would be a reckless cyclist. Not a reckless cement truck driver.
(This is just my opinion. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.)

It is always unfortunate when a road user loses his life in an accident,
But it isn’t fair to always blame the driver.

I have been driving for 8 years and remained accident-free.
I intend to keep it that way.

Being blessed enough to graduate with a social science degree, I am educated about the dynamics of a society and I believe that no human being should be ostracized by his race, sexual orientation or religion.

From young, I have been taught in church to be more accepting and to embrace the people who may be different from us. It is rude to point to an Indian and call him Ah bu neh neh and similarly, it is rude to point to a man and call him an Ah gua.

However this wasn’t the case for Pastor Lawrence Khong, as many believed, when he delivered the anti-gay message in his statement.

I made my point to my cell group leader, and emphasized that religion and politics don’t mix. The Church, despite being on higher moral ground, shouldn’t be telling the Government what should be done for the better of a society. Just because the Church does not believe in same-sex marriage, her role does not include making any form of proposition or appeal to the Constitution that 377A should not be repealed.

In other words, just mind your own business.

If the Church were to have it her way, then every citizen in the country would also have to tithe 10% of his income, since we are already following Christian principles, no?
And that would also mean that abortion is wrong, and while it is still a debatable topic, what if some couples aren’t really ready to have a baby? We don’t outrightly ban abortion here in Singapore, yet that is not the case for same-sex marriage and sex between people of the same gender.

My cell group leader, however, thought otherwise. He casually remarked, “Timothy, sometimes I wonder if you are really Christian or not.”
He didn’t say it on a serious note, but if I were to take it seriously, then I guess as a real Christian, we should be more accepting of others despite all our differences, and that includes race, sexual orientation, and religion, isn’t it?

Fortunately, our very experienced ESM, as wise as he may be, responded neutrally, “You stand by your belief, and you’ll be fine.”
Maybe ESM Goh Chok Tong doesn’t know his Bible, but I think he probably wanted to quote 1 Thess 4:11.

Make it your goal to live a quiet life, minding your own business and working with your hands, just as we instructed you before. Then people who are not Christians will respect the way you live, and you will not need to depend on others.

It has been a long time since I last blogged and I wish I didn’t have to restart this year with a series of rants, but my emotions are really spiraling out of control.

Friends who are close to me, would know that I don’t talk to my parents a lot.

The past one month has been quite depressing for me because I have sent in several job applications to NUS but I was never shortlisted for a single position.
I decided to take a chance and applied to NTU and SMU as well.

I received a call from SMU one day and was invited to head down for an interview.
Unfortunately, with such a promising career on the line, I was extremely nervous during the interview and I personally felt that I didn’t do well at all.

I spent both my Christmas and New Year’s weeks waiting anxiously for the phone call to inform me that I got through the first round of interview, but unfortunately there was none.

However, my wait was not in vain, as on the third week after the first interview, I finally received an email inviting me down for the second round of interview. I tweeted about it and that same day, received all sorts of encouraging wishes from friends and followers. I felt really blessed to be able to get through the first round even though I honestly felt that I screwed everything up. I was determined to excel in my second interview.

Carrying high expectations of myself, I made my way down to SMU for the second round of interview yesterday. This time round, I maintained my composure and casted all nervousness aside. I was able to conduct myself quite professionally throughout the entire interview, and I felt that I did well. The only problem was that I noticed another female candidate outside the general office, and she is my only competition for the applied position. What are my chances? I guess it would be a 50-50 chance, it’s either her or me.

I am confident I did well for my second interview, and I am sure she did too. Afterall, the fact that we both made it through the first round would have meant that there was a desired quality in us that the interviewers saw.

Again, I tweeted about it and at the same time, also informed close friends about my progress. Nobody wants to watch me remain stagnant in my current workplace. My friends encouraged me to remain hopeful and pray for the best. To be able to make it through to the second interview, is already quite an achievement by itself, especially since nobody from NUS ever responded back to my applications.

I came home, and my mum asked me about the interview, to which I also replied confidently that I felt I did rather well.

Her response? In her exact words, she said I have “no hope” and no, she wasn’t joking when she said it to my face.
How much more discouraging can anybody get? I really don’t know, but please don’t ask me why do I hate talking to my parents.